


three lessons

by lalaietha



Category: Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)
Genre: Ambiguously Close Siblings, Other, Polyamory, Siblings, V Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-24
Updated: 2013-12-24
Packaged: 2018-01-05 22:43:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1099448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lalaietha/pseuds/lalaietha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mina learns her witch-hunters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	three lessons

**Author's Note:**

  * For [grassangel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/grassangel/gifts).



> Written as a treat for Yuletide 2013 for grassangel. For the purposes of this fic, I just assume that since Hansel could be magically healed of a major stab-wound, so could Mina, with relatively little fuss, and go from there.

They aren't easy to read, her witch-hunters. Mina wonders if anyone who didn't have magic could manage it, not because magic could read them, but because magic trained you to look carefully, to see beyond, to join little things together to find a whole. She studies her witch-hunters with the same care she would study a complex spell, and they're still far more difficult - wrapped in around each other and hiding themselves, as much as they can, from the rest of the world. 

But she learns. And the first thing she learns is that you can't love only one of them.

If you think you can, it's because you don't know them. It's because you're still trapped outside, faced with the facade where Gretel plays aloof and calm, or angry and wild by turns, and Hansel plays loud and boorish to keep people away from both of them. Each act is a little bit of a lie, though the lie is so old and so familiar it's easier for them to lie than to tell the truth. Gretel can be polite, she can be gentle, she can be thoughtful; Hansel isn't so stupid as not to know, really, that the gory details of witch-hunting are more likely than anything to drive a girl away retching. 

But they act out those lies to keep anyone from seeing the truth, because the truth makes them vulnerable, and they can't afford vulnerabilities.

It's not that they're the same person. They aren't. But they're like trees grafted together to make a new shape, except the graft is in their hearts and minds. They are everything to each other except lovers, and even that Mina thinks is only because Gretel doesn't like men and to Hansel it doesn't matter, as long as she's always there, always where he can find her and touch her and know that she's real and alive and there with him. They are mother and father and sister and brother and son and daughter to each other, and the best of friends. If one of them ended up in Hell, the other would start another war of angels to break down the doors and find their other half again. 

If you try to love just one, in the end their love for the other will push you away. If you love both, they can love back. 

(The first time she kisses Gretel's mouth, Gretel freezes for all of a second before both of her hands are tangled in Mina's hair, pulling her closer, dragging her forward so that Gretel falls against the wall and Mina ends up leaning against her, one of Gretel's half-bent legs on each side of her. Gretel takes a breath and starts to say - to maybe babble - "Okay, wait, I'm sorry - " but Mina kisses her again and this time Gretel stays still and just kisses back.)

The second thing Mina learns is that loving either one _or_ both of them is like loving a pair of prickly barn-cats who are secretly quite certain you're going to try to swing them around by the tail, and are only just fond enough of you not to attack first.

Eventually, after the fifth town they go through and the fifth time Hansel's made some kind of snide, or really outright nasty remark about Mina staying with some man or other who she glances at for more than thirty seconds, she loses her temper and snatches up pine cones from the ground, pelting them at his head. He ducks and shields his head, but she doesn't stop. 

"I am not," she says, " _leaving_ ," punctuating each pulse in the sentence with a pine cone, "so _shut up_. I am not," and she picks up some more to fling, even while he protests and tries to knock them away, "your _mother_ , or any _other girl_ ," and she throws two more, "who got _scared away_ by how you are with your _sister_ ," and now she's run out of pine cones, "and I'm not going _anywhere_ ," and he's up against a tree, out of places to back away, so on the last word she shoves his shoulder instead. " _Understand?_ " 

"You're fucking crazy," he tells her, sliding away from the tree and pretending he's scared of her.

"And I'd say you're a paranoid bastard," she retorts, "but I hold the memory of your mother in too much honour. You're stuck with me, witch-hunter. So stop being a, a," and here she falls back on Gretel's invective, "nasty-minded _fuckhead_." 

Gretel comes across the bridge as Mina steps back, still frustrated, still angry, and Hansel points at her. "She's crazy," he repeats. 

"I can get more pinecones," she growls. Gretel just shrugs. 

"We knew that," she says, tossing the second half of their pay to Hansel to tuck away in their money-pouch. "She hangs around with us." 

Mina glares at her, but they just get on their horses and ride away, Edward keeping pace, and that night Hansel's kisses seem to have the taste of apology. 

A few nights later, when in a different town an innkeeper brings tubs and hot water to the room she and Gretel share (because there is less comment that way) and Gretel's brushing through her hair while Mina has the first wash, Gretel says, "You know I wouldn't blame you if one day you did decide to stay somewhere. It's not really any kind of life, what we do, and - " 

"When your brother and I had this conversation," Mina interrupts her, carefully pouring water over one half of her hair to wash the soap out, "I threw pinecones at him and pushed him into a tree. I _can_ go find pinecones outside for this one, too, if you don't stop it." 

Gretel shakes her head. "I'm serious." 

"So am I," Mina counters. 

Gretel's jaw tightens, as she pulls the brush-bristles through her hair with a little more force. "You might regret that someday." 

"Not as much as I would regret leaving," Mina replies. And when Gretel opens her mouth, she adds, "Would you leave me?" 

Gretel's mouth snaps closed. She blinks several times and when she speaks it almost sounds like someone punched her in the chest. "No," she says. "Of course not." 

"Then do me the courtesy of assuming I'm just as faithful, will you?" Mina says, and rinses the other half of her hair. 

When they go to bed, Gretel wraps her arms around Mina and nuzzles into her shoulder and stays there, just breathing. She's holding Mina a little too tight for comfort, but Mina's not going to say a damn thing.

The third thing Mina learns is that very little compares to the moments of quiet, far away from everyone but their faithful troll who wanders at night the way trolls do, wrapped up in blankets and in each other, knowing that both Hansel and Gretel trust her enough not to wake up when she does, and love her enough to let her lie between them until they all wake at dawn. 

That is the best thing.


End file.
